In recent years, for example, in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as “wafer”) becomes larger in diameter. Further, for a specific process such as packaging, the thickness of the wafer is required to be thinner. If the thin large-diameter wafer is transferred or it is subjected to a polishing process, there runs a risk of a warp or a crack occurring in the wafer. Therefore, in order to strengthen the wafer, for example, the wafer may be joined to an extra wafer or a glass substrate serving as a support substrate. Further, after a predetermined process such as the polishing of the wafer is performed in a state in which the wafer and the support substrate are joined to each other, the support substrate is peeled off from the wafer.
Conventionally, the process of peeling off of the support substrate from the wafer is performed using a peeling device. In the peeling device, the wafer is held using a first holding unit while the support substrate is held using a second holding unit, and the support substrate is peeled off from the wafer by vertically moving an outer peripheral portion of the second holding unit.
However, when holding the wafer and the support substrate by the first holding unit and the second holding unit, respectively, if the wafer and the support substrate are not appropriately held, it is difficult to accurately peel off the support substrate from the wafer. In such a case, there is a risk of damaging the wafer or the support substrate. Especially, since the thickness of the wafer is thin, the wafer may easily be damaged.
However, in this peeling device, position adjustments of the wafer and the support substrate with respect to the first holding unit and the second holding unit have not been considered. As such, there is a need for an improvement in a peeling process of the wafer and the support substrate.